Changing paradigms in mental health care are creating suboptimal learning environments for psychiatric nursing students. By developing a novel interactive multimedia simulation of a psychiatric health care setting, students can interact with a virtual patient with model Bipolar Affective Disorder (BAD) behavior. By using Case-in-Point, the student will develop appropriate patient interviewing skills to obtain model information that they will use to define problems, set goals, plan interventions, and monitor outcome (feedback). Phase I aims to design, develop, and evaluate one prototype module of a BAD case-study. Student acquisition of appropriate skills and behavior activities in the prototype will be based on sound problem-based learning theory. Program design will use an iterative, formative process that includes clinical, content, and curriculum experts, and the target population. The CiP program (end of Phase II) will have completed all BAD case-study modules. The innovative program will integrate curriculum design and multimedia technologies to teach the student independent critical thinking and problem-solving skills essential to psychiatric nursing practice both in the clinic and in the community. Thus, Case-in-Point brings quality psychiatric education to the student in a suboptimal climate of shifting mental health care delivery paradigms. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATION Increasingly, psychiatric nursing schools are no longer able to effectly use direct patient care settings as learning environments. CiP fills this void in curricula by delivering virtual patient care settings to the student via CD-ROM. Schools can use CiP as a stand-alone learning tool or as supplemental material accompanying existing textbooks, such as "Psychiatric Nursing" by Wilson Kneisel.